Yundi

YUNDI / PROKOFIEV, RAVEL Piano Concertos 4776593

. . . the recording is fabulous. Yundi Li, the brilliant young Chinese pianist . . . has proved a technically astounding pianist who is by turns elegant and rambunctious, coolly expressive and white-hot. The surging, rhapsodic and daunting Prokofiev concerto is an ideal piece for him. He also gives a splendid account of the Ravel: crackling with energy in the first movement, dreamy in the bluesy Adagio assai and restlessly spirited in the finale . . . [Ozawa] leads exciting, richly colored and organic accounts of these familiar works. They whet my appetite for the concerts of this great orchestra in New York.

Record Review /
Anthony Tommasini,
The New York Times / 06. November 2007

Brilliance, poetry: Yundi Li has emerged as one of the more personable of the younger generation of pianists. There's no shortage of glittering brilliance, which is certainly called for in both works, but the Chinese pianist is no banger. He also has a genuine poetic side, allied to a lovely glowing tone . . . smart, suave performances, boldly but naturally recorded in live concerts.

The brilliant young Chinese pianist Yundi Li excels in Prokofiev¿s volatile, technically daunting Piano Concerto No. 2. He plays with expansive lyricism, surging power and, when called for, incisive attack. There is also a tart, exuberant and (in the Adagio assai) dreamy account of the Ravel concerto. Seiji Ozawa draws luminous sounds from the great Berlin Philharmonic.

Record Review /
Anthony Tommasini,
The New York Times / 30. November 2007

The final rush to judgment catapults us headlong into a kaleidoscopic abyss -- wild, to say the least! A delicious treat throughout, aided most pointedly by the engineering, courtesy of Klaus Hiemann.

Record Review /
Gary Lemco,
Audiophile Audition / 04. January 2008

. . . it is this imaginative pairing of concertos by Ravel and Prokofiev that really shows that he¿s got the goods to match the hype.

Record Review /
Brian Wise,
WNYC New York Public Radio / 14. January 2008

. . . among Prokoviev's five piano concertos, the No. 2 is not the most often recorded, and this new one with Yundi Li and Seiji Ozawa . . . and the Berlin Philharmonic is a highly desirable and recommended reading . . . Li's and Ozawa's Ravel Concerto is equally a success . . . Li's and Ozawa's reading . . . definitely belongs in the same class with the very best.

Record Review /
Jerry Dubins,
Fanfare (Tenafly, NJ) / 01. March 2008

This is a bracing release, in which Li's Ravel is very high on the list, with the Prokofiev adding uncommon interest. The sound . . . is full, vibrant, yet clear and never overloaded.

Record Review /
Stephen Pruslin,
International Record Review (London) / 01. April 2008

Deeply thoughtful and formidably virtuosic, he makes light work of Prokofiev's nightmarish technical demands. This is a really superb disc . . . Seiji Ozawa . . . is a quite wonderful accompanist, coaxing haunting, unforgettable sounds from the Berlin Phil . . . Ravel's an enchanting "jeu d'esprit". Certainly Yundi Li (superbly partnered by Seiji Ozawa and the Berlin Philharmonic) has few doubts about either concerto. Indeed, his performance of the Prokofiev, in its prodigious, unflagging power and brilliance, far surpasses any other in the catalogue . . . His moto perpetuo Scherzo is vivace with a vengeance and the colossal first movement's combined development and cadenza is played with an authority that will make lesser mortals pale with envy and admiration. He is no less attuned to Ravel's charm and vivacity, to music seen through a glass brightly rather than darkly, touching off the central Adagio with a moving simplicity and whirling us through the finale with a dazzling and engaging "joie de vivre". It only remains for met to add that this superlative young Chinese pianist is heard in the full glory of DG's sound at its most opulent and crystalline.

Record Review /
Bryce Morrison,
Gramophone (London) / 01. May 2008

Li already places himself among the twenty or so pianists to play every note of Prokofiev's colossal Second Piano Concerto, and his security is staggering . . . the hair-raising aspects of the last two movements remain breathtakingly clear.

Record Review /
David Nice,
BBC Music Magazine (London) / 01. July 2008